NS2_Icarus

NS2 Icarus is a map I have been working on since sometime May 2010. Now that there's enough material to show I would like to share progress with you guys. :)

Description: The Icarus facility has been established on <random planet> to begin mining of <random rare resource>. Progress is going well until the miners strike something odd and unleash the Kharaa into the facility.

The map contains 5 tech points with 7 RTs. It follows the mapping guidelines as well as I could for this specific layout. For either team, expanding leftward leads to 2 RT rooms and expanding rightwards leads to another tech point. For lighting I am trying to create a 3 color theme. Most all rooms have red accents with the other tone being a yellow-orange toward the aliens side and a bluish towards the marines side. I'm not 100% sure how I feel about the blue yet but it seems to have been working now that I have gotten most of the marine side down.

Screenshots:

A node room next to the Ventilation Chamber.

Center tech point and res node. There will be a lot of fighting for control of this room however it could be avoided entirely by expanding on the outside routes.

The closest node to the alien spawn. Also one of the first rooms I made and still needs more prop walls etc but it is coming along nice with the 'spinning fan w/ light behind it' above (pic later).

A link between Cargo, Shipping & Receiving, and Ventilation Chamber. Screenshot is taken from the center of the T looking towards ventilation chamber.

The closest tech point to the alien spawn.

A secondary generator at the Power Core tech point. There is a much larger generator in the main part of the room.

An route between Ventilation Chamber and alien spawn, Excavation.

Much more to come. As you can see from the layout there is a lot I have not shown yet (basically all of the marine side of the map).

I am aware that some rooms are still lacking in props and some of the surfaces need to be broken up a little more for aesthetics. Other than that feedback, concerns?

Visually it's not as pleasing as other levels, however I'm very impressed from the top down. That's how I understood the NS2 mapping guidelines on layout; first time I've seen another person on these forums to have the same impression I'm under.

Yes I had built the entire layout before starting on the geometry/textures because one of my biggest concerns is game play, however I won't know anything until the alpha really. The dim orange style is only applied to about half the map and I'm trying to figure out a way to enhance it a bit. Maybe I should brighten the orange a little more?

One more screenshot of what I've been working on tonight before I go to bed. This is a section of the closest tech point to marine spawn, Power Core. It showcases the bluish coloring theme I'm trying to work into the other half of the map and I think it gives some contrast to the darker dim orange corridors. Haven't quite finished everything in here but this is where I'm going with it:

I'm not sure what it is exactly but I don't like the red lights. Maybe if there an emissive property you could turn on it wouldn't feel so harsh and stand out. The orange lights seem to work a bit better and go well with the textures and props.

Have you tested the distances from points and if they are close compared to the opposite side? The far left Tech to Res seems to be a longer distance than on the right.

Distance has not been tested yet however I am keeping the right nodes closer to the top tech point and left nodes closer to the bottom tech point. The side tech points are the first expansion points so I'm trying to keep a little distance from them and the 2nd node for the opposite team.

What is not liked about the red? Personally I like red accents, however I am always open to suggestion if something seems off. Is it that the red lights look too concentrated up top in cargo? I can try and turn down the intensity some and maybe turn up the distance a little to decrease the contrast?

I have also been playing around with ways to enhance the yellow-orange lights and increase lighting more without it looking too washed out. Here is an example of what the modified style looks like:I'm going to try and work this back into the areas that had the template light-behind-screen things as they were looking a bit plain and this might spice it up some.

A bunch more screen shots of the marine side (with a blue theme) to come soon. I have done a lot of work to those areas and it is pulling together quite nicely but I have been feeling a bit self-conscious to post :p

Also as an update to the status of the map, to have it playable I just need to add vents, add in a few missing nodes (the rooms are already in place), and finish up a few of the most obviously unfinished areas (random sections of certain hallways / couple parts rooms). The rest is all adding more and more detail but I am not ready to finalize anything until I start alpha testing this map in ~10 days

What is not liked about the red? Personally I like red accents, however I am always open to suggestion if something seems off. Is it that the red lights look too concentrated up top in cargo? I can try and turn down the intensity some and maybe turn up the distance a little to decrease the contrast?

I agree red accents are good too but the whole ceiling is red in the Power Core. Yeah, too concentrated. I'd have the red lights further up so there is a shadowed space on the crossbeams separating the lights from the room. Or have them dimmer or something so that your attention isn't drawn so the ceiling so much

Excavation Access looks wonderful. It feels much more natural as far as lighting than the others.

I agree red accents are good too but the whole ceiling is red in the Power Core. Yeah, too concentrated. I'd have the red lights further up so there is a shadowed space on the crossbeams separating the lights from the room. Or have them dimmer or something so that your attention isn't drawn so the ceiling so much

Completly agree.Try to make the distance smaller so that one red light only lights a quarter of the ceiling door and the surrounding crossbeams a little. Then you could add 2 lights per segment on both sides.Also the white light props are disturbing. Try this small, round ones and place them according to my previous suggestion (4 per segment).

Edit: Just noticed Razor talks about power core first :DMy suggestion is for cargo. I think power core looks fine, but even there the red lights could use a very slight decrease in distance.

Ok these suggestions are helping a bit I've fixed up the lighting in Power Core and although I've been working on a bunch of other sections of the map I did try to make some adjustments to Cargo too. I'm still not quite happy yet especially with the far walls (the boring ones with doorways) and although I think the red lighting has improved some I really need to change it around again. I'm thinking maybe 3 lights per segment and the segments need to be broken up a bit maybe? Possibly a texture change too since the texture being used right now is too reflective and makes the lights look more like points instead of atmospheric.

Not sure how much more time you want to invest into cargo (at least until playtesting), but I think the main problem of the room is that it still looks like a huge box.Long, straight faces, props and textures. In addition not enough light sources to get more contrast and variation into the scene.

First of all I would add a huge crossbeam like shape, which goes from the left to the right and connects with the middle of that wall between the two orange parts.A bit lower than the pipes so they go through it and you shouldn't be able to look through it (no grates or whatever) unless maybe the part where the pipes go through (could also be a little space for a skulk/lerk).Don't know how much further your scene goes, but if you have 3 orange parts and 4 ceiling door segments, you just add two of those huge crossbeams.

..and yes, what Thaldarin said, since you need a lot more lights anyway.

Ok these suggestions are helping a bit I've fixed up the lighting in Power Core and although I've been working on a bunch of other sections of the map I did try to make some adjustments to Cargo too. I'm still not quite happy yet especially with the far walls (the boring ones with doorways) and although I think the red lighting has improved some I really need to change it around again. I'm thinking maybe 3 lights per segment and the segments need to be broken up a bit maybe? Possibly a texture change too since the texture being used right now is too reflective and makes the lights look more like points instead of atmospheric.

Updated the main post to reflect these new screen shots also...

Hey Lazer, some constructive criticism that I originally noticed when I saw the two shots is that they both looked washed out with the lighting. I think it really might benefit you to start making larger starker contrasts, have dark corners/locations, and use a bit more neutral colors as general lighting sources instead of the fancier highlight lighting to ultimately do the brunt of it.

Not sure how much more time you want to invest into cargo (at least until playtesting), but I think the main problem of the room is that it still looks like a huge box.Long, straight faces, props and textures. In addition not enough light sources to get more contrast and variation into the scene.

First of all I would add a huge crossbeam like shape, which goes from the left to the right and connects with the middle of that wall between the two orange parts.A bit lower than the pipes so they go through it and you shouldn't be able to look through it (no grates or whatever) unless maybe the part where the pipes go through (could also be a little space for a skulk/lerk).Don't know how much further your scene goes, but if you have 3 orange parts and 4 ceiling door segments, you just add two of those huge crossbeams.

..and yes, what Thaldarin said, since you need a lot more lights anyway.

Yes I agree a bit about the boxiness that is what I was getting at about the boring wall (with the doors). I'm pretty happy with the side walls though and any crossbeams I add needs to not interfere with running under the doors or getting in the way of the ceiling crane. I'm going to continue working on Cargo today and post another update but like you said I'm not sure how much more time I want to invest in it (right now at least) since I have some much more unfinished areas to get finished up this week.

Now in regards to lighting, I feel like I'm getting completely different opinions from everybody. Generally as I've been finishing up areas I have made sure they are all well lit with a few exceptions. Most of the brighter part of the map I haven't posted any shots of yet and will try and do so really soon. Cargo does appear washed out now but at least on my monitor Power Core looks to have a lot of contrast. Ventilation Chamber has had its lighting improved and Shipping & Receiving has a lot of propping left (I like to work in more lights once adding props). I'm going to try a few things and post some more shots later on today. Thanks guys.

Ok here is some more work done to Cargo. I still haven't touched the door walls but I made big changes to the pipe supports and added a bunch of lighting. I think I'm liking this more. I also like the idea of lighting up doorways a bit so I'm going to try and work that in around the map too.

Going to continue working on other sections now and will hopefully have some of the other areas to show later.

Hey guys I've been spending some time messing around with making the map playable in the alpha. I did manage to set up pathing, readyroom, team joins/spawns, etc however I don't think there is a point in testing this map yet until the alpha is more stable. Anyway this means I've got plenty more time to work on aesthetics and finish up some of the more unfinished areas I have left to touch on.

In the mean time here is some work in progress I have been doing to the alien spawn, Excavation:

Inside the main part of the hive

Looking out towards Excavation Service Access

And an in game shot of the hive:

And a peak at the main area of power core. This still has a lot left to be done:

Now, the commander can, and infact only can, build his own structures. Marines can now upgrade their own weapons. The result is that in effect, the Commander and the Marines are now playing two seperate games. Synergy has been replaced with disunity. If Commanders don't need their Marines as much, they won't communicate with them as much, and vice versa.

Thanks I'm happy with certain aspects of it visually (mainly the core itself) but the surrounding geometry of the room needs a bit of a face lift. I'm also concerned about game play and might need to add little balconies around the edges to give more walking room up top? Not quite sure yet.

Also although I haven't posted any shots of it I just scrapped my marine spawn and am redoing that room again. It was going to be a hangar bay but realized if I'm going to do this and make sense it can't have any cover (no pillars etc) and this would be stupid for game-play reasons. It is now going to be Reception and give a feel as being the front entrance of the facility. I plan to have some sky/terrain visible and a landing pad outside which I guess would be comparable to Hera but I don't currently plan for players to be able to get outside.

Also with the transparent textures now supported I think I want to try to have a bit of steamy water under the platforms in Excavation. This might add nicely to the atmosphere in there.

Still gotta add all the vents as well.

Some more areas to be revealed soon too. Thinking next up will be Cargo Access.